Fiction in translation
Half of this shelf is Eastern European and it is the better half.
Used & new books / Ann Arbor, Michigan
Good books.
Previous lives.
Your turn.
Twenty-four thousand titles on a side street off Liberty. We buy over the counter, we read what we sell, and we will tell you when a book is not for you.
A name in the front. A note in the margin.
That is what we are called.
A book keeps more than its place.
01 / A second reading starts here↓ There is more in the margins24,000 titles*
02 / The shelf register
What are you
in the mood for?
Twelve shelves to start with.
The bookseller’s notes are included.
*Illustrative stock counts and prices.
12 shelves / Second-hand price bands
2,140titles$4–14second hand
Poetry
Buy the thin ones first. A poet who needs three hundred pages is usually padding.
The sea
Most of these are not about sailing. Several are about being afraid.
Natural history
Take the plates home even if you never read a word of the text.
Michigan and the Midwest
Local history is mostly dull. About forty of these are not, and we have marked them.
Philosophy
Start at the back with the commentaries. Nobody's first Hegel goes well.
Cookery
A used cookbook with one stained page is a recommendation.
Children's and middle grade
For a twelve-year-old who has stopped: short, funny, and slightly too old for them.
Science and mathematics
A textbook two editions back is ninety per cent the same book for a tenth of the money.
Art and photography
Heavy, and worth carrying. Ask us to check the plates before you pay.
Crime and the paperback wall
It is fine to buy the cheap paperback. That is what it is for.
Reference, atlases and the odd shelf
Nothing new here. The odd shelf is where we put what we cannot categorise.
Twelve of nineteen shelves. General fiction, history, drama, music, religion, travel, and the dollar cart make up the rest.
03 / Previous livesThe story survives
The story survives
the first reader.
04 / Give it another reader
Read is a condition.
Not a fault.
Bring them to the counter before four. Four boxes is an ordinary afternoon. Forty boxes is a phone call first.
hand to hand.
The condition desk / try the slider
FIELD NOTES
on a second lifeREADY FOR ANOTHER
on a second lifeREADY FOR ANOTHER
Well readLike new
Gently used
A sound spine, clean pages, a little shelf wear. Bring it to the counter.
Water damage, smoke or mould: we cannot take those.
05 / Left between the pages
Someone was
here before you.
A thought underlined. A corner folded. The quiet company of another reader.
01 / The cloth02 / The pencil marks03 / The next reader
06 / The subscription
A conversation,
then a book.
What you last finished.
What you gave up on halfway.
We can work with that.
Illustrative plans. This preview does not start a subscription.
What comes with each plan
One book · $22 a month. We ask what you last finished and what you gave up on halfway. Then a book a month, in a paper bag, with a card saying why.
Two books · $38 a month. Two books a month. Sometimes the second one arrives because we could tell the first one was wrong, and we will say so on the card.
Two books and the good shelf · $65 a month. Two books a month, with at least one hardback or a first edition whenever we find one you would genuinely read rather than shelve.
A note from your bookseller
One book
Fifteen minutes, once, at the counter or on the phone.
Chosen by a person.M / BOOK POST
07 / An example reading programme
A room.
A voice. Your Tuesday.
Upstairs, seven o’clock.
Free. You can just listen.
MARGINALIA
READING ROOM01
7 PM
READING ROOM01
7 PM
Sep 2
The Low Countries in Winter
Anneke Roos
Her own translation. She will read the Dutch first and then the English, and it is worth staying for both.
Fictional programme / no bookingMARGINALIA
READING ROOM02
7 PM
READING ROOM02
7 PM
Sep 9
Six readers, eight minutes each
Open floor
Put your name on the list by the till any time before the Tuesday. Poems, chapters, letters — we have had all three.
Fictional programme / no bookingMARGINALIA
READING ROOM03
7 PM
READING ROOM03
7 PM
Sep 16
Nightwater
Marcus Odell
A first novel. He is terrified about it. Come anyway; it is very good and he will need the room.
Fictional programme / no bookingMARGINALIA
READING ROOM04
7 PM
READING ROOM04
7 PM
Sep 23
What the Lakes Remember
Dr Priya Raman
Great Lakes hydrology, with slides, and considerably better than that sounds. She brought core samples last time.
Fictional programme / no bookingMARGINALIA
READING ROOM05
7 PM
READING ROOM05
7 PM
Sep 30
A Correspondence
Ellery Voss and Tom Han
Two poets who have written to each other for nine years and have never met. They are reading each other's letters, not their own.
Fictional programme / no bookingMARGINALIA
READING ROOM06
7 PM
READING ROOM06
7 PM
Oct 7
Read aloud
The staff
Four of us, ten minutes each, from the book we could not stop pushing on people this year. Usually the loudest night of the season.
Fictional programme / no booking08 / A few things we leave out
Books.
Enough said.
No algorithm
Nothing here knows what you bought last time. A person might remember, which is a different thing and better.
No loyalty points
The subscription is the only thing you can join, and shop credit is the only thing that accumulates.
No rare-book theatre
There are about ninety books behind glass. Ask and we will take one out and let you hold it.
No coffee
There is a good place four doors down and they have the sense not to sell books.
09 / The standing order desk
One sentence.
We keep an eye out.
An edition, a translator, a book you half remember. In the shop, we would put it in the ledger. Here, try the slip.
Marginalia / wanted ledger
The book I lent someone and never got back.
SPECIMEN 001DESK COPY
10 / Find the green door · imagined shop
Come in.Stay a while.MARGINALIA BOOKS / USED & NEW
Fourth Avenue.
Second thoughts.
214 Fourth Avenue, Ann Arbor
Between the hardware shop and the place that mends shoes. The door is green and it sticks.
- Monday to Friday
- 10 – 7
- Saturday
- 9 – 7
- Sunday
- 12 – 5
- Tuesday evening
- reading at 7
Doors, stairs & access
Getting in. No step at the Fourth Avenue door. The doorway is 34 inches clear and the door is heavy — knock and somebody will hold it.
The shop floor. One level throughout. The aisles are 36 inches except Crime, which is 30 inches because of the paperback wall, and we will fetch from it.
The reading room. Up thirteen stairs with a handrail on the right. There is no lift. Tell us before a Tuesday and we will hold the reading downstairs — we have done it four times this year.
Everything else. Accessible toilet at the back past Natural History. Two metered spaces outside, a free lot on Ann Street after six, and the bike rack is ours.
Illustrative address, hours and access details.
This bookshop is a design concept.